It finally happened. My streaming services are all gone. I pay for YouTube Premium still — who would argue with ad-free videos and music streaming for $14 a month — but every other streaming platform has bit the dust, and that’s because I spent $90 on a lifetime membership to Plex Pass, which is 25% off its normal price of $120 for Cyber Monday.
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with Plex. It started a few months ago when I decided to finally build a Plex server with a mini PC and an external hard drive. Then, I finally upgraded that experience with a proper network-attached storage (NAS) just a few weeks ago. Now, I have the final piece of the puzzle in the form of a Plex Pass membership that I won’t need to pay for month after month.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. If somehow you aren’t familiar, Plex is a media server application that’s completely free. Download it on just about anything, and you can stream your media from any device with access to the app. I’ve used it, along with a large collection of physical media, to chip away at streaming services that, frankly, are filled with content I’m not even remotely interested in watching.
Plex is one of those rare services that’s truly free. You’re not getting some limited version of the app where it feels like you run into a paywall around every corner. Plex Pass, which is available either for a one-time lifetime fee or as an inexpensive $5 monthly membership, simply expands the already stellar free service.
Plex Pass has a lot of additional features, but there are a few that really make a difference for me. First, intro and credits skipping. I am a habitual anime watcher, and although I like to jam out to a good intro from time to-time I don’t have precious minutes to waste on the same credits sequence when I’m bingeing. You can skip the intro and credits of shows with Plex Pass.
Basically, every major streaming platform has this feature, but the version is Plex Pass is surprisingly robust. Particularly for anime, Crunchyroll has a terrible skipping feature. Half of the time, it doesn’t work, or it pops up well after the intro is done. I’ve never had that problem with Plex.
The other big feature is hardware transcoding. I mainly watch media off of my Plex server on my local network, but I have it configured so I can access my server when I’m away from home, as well. When streaming remotely like this, I need to transcode the video files, especially if I’m watching some chunky 4K Blu-ray rip of a movie.
Transcoding with software is pitifully slow, and usually leads to an endless barrage of buffering and sub-720p picturequality. With hardware transcoding, I can take advantage of the Intel Core i3-N305 CPU in my NAS, as well as its integrated graphics, to handle the transcoding. Even a relatively weak CPU like this can tear through video transcoding with multiple streams.
Those are the two highlights for me, but there are a few other features that I make good use of with Plex Pass. You can download your media, which is great if I’m going on a flight. Plex Pass also comes with HDR tone mapping for those high-quality Blu-ray rips, and support for multiple editions of the same content if you’re a mega nerd about movies like me.
I’m really just scratching the surface on features here. Plexamp, for example, is basically Spotify for your own personal music collection, complete with lyrics and downloads. You can even hook up a TV antenna to not only stream live TV, but to also use your server as a DVR.
I won’t lie, handling all of this is a lot more work than just swallowing whatever fee your streaming service of choice throws at you. But it’s also a lot of fun. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed configuring and tweaking my Plex server, and I’m excited to do even more now with Plex Pass. And as a bonus, I don’t have to pay close to $100 each month for services I barely even use.
